🔗 Share this article

“Things happen.” Just two words. That’s all it took for Donald Trump to brush off what is arguably the most notorious murder of a reporter of the last decade – and in so doing plumbed a new low in his disregard toward journalists, for the media – and for the truth.

The Context

The US president’s dismissive attitude of the murder of well-known reporter the Washington Post columnist came during a press conference with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman – a man whom the US intelligence found in a 2021 report had orchestrated the abduction and murder of the journalist in that year. (The crown prince has denied involvement.)

The US intelligence services were not the sole entities to conclude the murder – which took place in the Saudi diplomatic building in Istanbul and in which the 59-year-old Khashoggi was drugged and dismembered – was signed off at the top echelons. An inquiry led by former UN expert, Agnès Callamard, reached comparable findings.

International Response

For a short time, governments were in agreement in their condemnation of the kingdom’s conduct. The US enacted sanctions and travel restrictions in that year over the killing, although it refrained of penalizing the crown prince himself. Since then, the nation has been gradually restoring itself – and the leader’s trip to the US capital seemed to be the ultimate sign of that rehabilitation.

White House Remarks

Opponents of the regime had strongly criticized the meeting. But what was on display at the White House was worse than could have been imagined. Not only did the president fete Prince Mohammed but he seemed to alter history – and then blamed the victim. The crown prince, Trump claimed when asked, was unaware about the murder – in clear opposition to what his country’s own spy agencies determined four years ago. Moreover, Trump said: “Many individuals didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you like him or disapproved, incidents occur.”

Pattern of Behavior

This marks a fresh and shameful low for a leader who has made little secret of his contempt for the facts – or for the media. Trump has defamed journalists (he called a news network, whose journalist asked the question about Khashoggi at the Saudi press conference “false information”), scolded them in public (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his relationship with the convicted sex offender financier the convicted criminal), sued news outlets for eye-watering sums of money in vexatious law suits, and called for media groups he doesn’t like to be shut down.

He has forced veteran news services out of the official briefing group for refusing to use language of his preference, and he has slashed funding for vital news services at home and vital independent media abroad.

Broader Implications

All of that has fostered an atmosphere in which journalists are manifestly less safe in the United States, but one in which their targeting – and indeed murder – becomes not just unimportant (“incidents occur”) but acceptable (“a lot of people disliked that gentleman”).

It is no surprise that 2024 was the deadliest year on file for journalists in the over three decades the press freedom organization has been documenting this information: a ongoing neglect to bring to justice those responsible for reporter murders has created a culture of impunity in which those who murder reporters are actually able to escape punishment and so persist in these actions.

Nowhere is this clearer than in Israel, which is responsible for the deaths of more than 200 journalists in the past two years.

Effect on Society

The effect on the public is deep. Targeting reporters are attacks on the truth. They are attacks on facts. They are violations of our entitlement to information and on our freedom to live freely and safely.

This week, the Committee to Protect Journalists gathers for its yearly global journalism honors. My message there is the same as my one for the president: such events may happen. But it is our duty to make sure they do not.